Noriega Trial About To Go To Jury

March 29, 1992|By WARREN RICHEY, Staff Writer

MIAMI -- After five months of testimony and the introduction of hundreds of documents and exhibits at his drug-trafficking and racketeering trial, the fate of Manuel Antonio Noriega soon will rest in the hands of 12 Dade County citizens.

With jury deliberations expected to begin as early as Wednesday, the spotlight at the historic trial is beginning to shift from the judge, the attorneys and the defendant toward nine women and three men.

They include a nurse, a retired construction worker, two elementary school teachers, an auto mechanic, a security guard, a postal worker, an insurance company employee, a businesswoman, and three homemakers.

Most of the jurors had little, if any, knowledge of Noriega and international affairs when selected for the panel last year. But the impact of their verdict will be felt from the Panamanian capital to the White House.

Their job will not be easy.

U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler has ordered the jurors sequestered for as long as it takes them to reach a decision. At night they will be housed in a Miami hotel. Their televisions, radios and newspapers will be monitored and censored to avoid their seeing any news reports about the trial.

During the day they will deliberate in a small conference room in the federal courthouse. The jurors will have to go through a serpentine tangle of conflicting testimony from 59 prosecution witnesses and 18 defense witnesses, deciding who was credible. Most jurors have been taking notes during the trial, with some filling as many as eight steno pads.

The jurors will also be presented with almost 1,000 government and defense exhibits, including poster photos of Medellin, Colombia, cocaine cartel bosses Jorge Ochoa and Gustavo Gaviria, detailed organizational charts of the Panama Defense Forces under Noriega, and wall-sized ledgers of Noriega`s secret bank accounts in Europe. They will have hundreds of pages of plea agreements, Drug Enforcement Administration reports and investigative cables, and financial statements to sort through.

When they have finished analyzing the evidence, they will have to apply their findings to federal racketeering and other laws. The laws are so complex they require more than 30 pages of written explanation from Hoeveler.

Eventually jurors will have to decide which of the conflicting portraits of Noriega presented during the trial they think is closer to the truth.

Was Noriega accepting millions of dollars in bribes from the Medellin cocaine cartel to allow Panama to be used as a haven for drug traffickers and money launderers, as government witnesses contend?

Or was the former ``Maximum Leader`` of Panama a dedicated anti-drug crusader who fully cooperated in the United States` war on drugs, but who was surrounded by corrupt aides who traded on his name and accepted bribes from traffickers without their commander`s knowledge, as defense witnesses contend?

If the 12 jurors agree with defense witnesses, deliberations could end quickly, making a detailed examination of the evidence in conjunction with racketeering and other laws unnecessary.

But if all jurors agree with the prosecution`s portrayal of Noriega, they must follow specific formulas outlined by the judge to decide whether prosecutors have proved beyond a reasonable doubt all the elements necessary to convict Noriega. A separate determination must be made for each of the 10 charges in the Noriega indictment.

The indictment revolves around eight suspected acts of racketeering. They form the core of the case against Noriega. The racketeering acts, as presented by prosecutors, range from knowledge by Noriega of drug smuggling flights, to his protection of a cocaine manufacturing plant in Panama, to his meeting in Cuba with Fidel Castro to mediate a dispute with the Medellin cartel.

Prosecutors have attempted to prove each of the eight racketeering acts. But for Noriega to be convicted of involvement in racketeering, it is only necessary for the jury to unanimously agree that the government proved Noriega`s involvement in two of the eight racketeering acts.

Legal experts said the jurors could reject the government`s evidence on six of the racketeering acts but still convict Noriega on the remaining two racketeering acts in the indictment.

The experts said that in essence, Noriega could win the bulk of his case by refuting the most serious charges against him but nonetheless end up convicted because the jury linked him to the two least serious racketeering acts.

WHAT NORIEGA JURY WILL DELIBERATE

Manuel Antonio Noriega faces up to 160 years in prison and $1.1 million in fines. The 10 counts Noriega is charged with, and the maximum penalties for each:

- 1.Racketeering conspiracy: 20 years and $250,000.

- 2.Racketeering: 20 years and $250,000.

- 3.Distribution and importation of cocaine: 15 years and $25,000.

- 4.Aiding and abetting the distribution of cocaine: 15 years and $25,000.

- 5.Aiding and abetting the distribution of cocaine: 15 years and $25,000.

- 6.Aiding and abetting the manufacture of cocaine: 15 years and $25,000.

- 7.Conspiring to manufacture,distribute and import cocaine:15 years and $25,000.

- 8.Conspiring to distribute and import cocaine: 20 years and $250,000.

- 9.Aiding and abetting the distribution of cocaine: 20 years and $250,000.